


the incidence of acquaintance

by Azzandra



Category: Andromeda Six (Visual Novel)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Pre-Canon, it's more strangers to friends, not so great family dynamics, you can interpret it as either pre-friendship or pre-romance but either way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26734984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzandra/pseuds/Azzandra
Summary: First impressions aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Relationships: Vexx Serif & Traveler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 21





	the incidence of acquaintance

Vexx hadn't been at the palace long enough to recognize all of the superfluous heirs by both name and face, but he got assigned to the youngest, which was at least easy to keep straight, and the job least likely to distract him from his real goal--after all, if anyone other than Zovack was going to start carving their way through the Royal Family, they'd hardly start with the youngest Princess out of eleven siblings, when there were much juicier targets around.

The introduction was perfunctory at best. Due to some arcane rule of protocol, the Captain of the Royal Guard had to personally make it known to any of the royal brats when their guards changed, but it was clear that the Captain was exasperated with having this annoying little task taking him away from more important duties. He maintained a professional veneer as he led Vexx through the south wing, but when he knocked at the Princess's door, it was a brisk, military rap that would have even made Vexx jump if he'd been on the other side.

Princess Ophelia opened the door with surprising swiftness in response, one hand buried in her hair as she held together the beginnings of a braid, the other lingering on the door handle as she stood in the threshold. Great, Vexx thought; the Captain had interrupted her morning primping. She was probably going to take her frustration on someone else for this, and someone else may very well end up being _him_.

"Your Highness," the Captain spoke, with very little play at deference, "Lieutenant Vexx Serif will be your assigned guard until further notice."

The Princess's eyes darted from the Captain to Vexx, and when she nodded, once, it was all the Captain apparently needed before he turned on his heels and departed. If she had any protest to lodge, the Captain clearly didn't give her any chance to do so, but she did not seem surprised or incensed. She seemed distracted, if anything, her eyes glazed over in thought.

She looked Vexx over once, eyes sliding over him like he was part of the scenery.

"Nice to meet you," she said. "Sorry, I have to go and--" She shrugged to gesture at her incomplete braid, even as locks started slipping through her fingers, and retreated back into the room before Vexx could reply much of anything.

That was as personal an exchange as he was expecting, and considering it didn't include a royal tantrum, he figured he was coming out ahead compared to a lot of the other Royal Guards.

* * *

Things Vexx was learning as days passed by: palace life was devoid of any real physical dangers.

Partly this was the fact that you couldn't throw a stick without hitting a Royal Guard, but another part was how defensible the palace was. Choke points, confusing corridors, double doors. No wonder Zovack needed this place mapped. It was mortifying enough that Vexx had to stop and ask directions in his first days in the Royal Guard, he'd definitely not want to have to do it while attempting a coup. What an embarrassing spectacle that would be. 'Excuse me, sir, could you point us to the throne room? We've got a king to gank.'

And it was one thing to hear how many gardens the palace had, but another thing to actually get there and realize it was high walls and dense foliage and a lack of clear lines of sight that frustrated his little sniper's heart. How were you supposed to assassinate anyone in all this greenery? Easier to just drown them in one of the many fountains, Vexx supposed.

At least thinking about prime sniping positions was something to do as he trailed after the Princess. He didn't know if she was going somewhere in particular or just having a stroll through the garden, because she hadn't said anything to him as she left her room and hadn't even seemed to notice when he started following her. In the week since being assigned to her, Vexx was learning this was pretty par for the course. But it was probably less intentional rudeness and more the fact that she was constantly just

zoned

the fuck

out.

It was a bit funny, actually. Vexx didn't know what she was thinking about, except maybe it was nothing at all, and the lights were on, but nobody was home. Suited him just fine. A stroke of luck that the one he got assigned to was the most oblivious one out of all these assholes.

She was so oblivious, in fact, that she didn't notice that there was someone else coming down the same path but from the opposite direction. One of her brothers, with his own guard dogging his heels, except this little shit definitely noticed the Princess first. A grin flashed across his face, something sharp and mean and gone in a second as he schooled his expression. Vexx noticed, had seen that same expression before in different faces, but didn't know what it meant in a place like this, or a family like this one.

"Hey, runt," the Prince called out just as he approached his sister. 

Vexx saw the tilt of her head as she just noticed her brother, and she trailed to a stop.

"Hello, Arlo," the Princess replied, more subdued but obviously trying to match her brother's effusiveness. Vexx guessed she'd missed the look on the guy's face just earlier. Prince Arlo. Right. Vexx remembered his name now. One of the Princess's coterie of half-siblings.

"Tea with your mother today?" Prince Arlo asked.

"Yeah," she replied.

Prince Arlo grinned again.

"Well, send my love," he said, and reached out to ruffle the Princess's hair, with surprising amounts of gusto.

The Princess made a startled sound in her throat, taken aback at first, then actually gasped in alarm and smacked the Prince's arm away. Vexx considered stepping in, but he caught the eye of Prince Arlo's assigned guard, and the small shake of the man's head, and it was clear that breaking up roughhousing among the siblings was not in the job description.

"Arlo," she barked in a flash of anger as she finally disentangled his hand from her hair, and this only seemed to delight the Prince, because he laughed as he walked on by and continued along his way, not even saying his goodbyes as he disappeared down the path.

The Princess remained in place even as her brother's laughter grew distant, shaking with anger as she tried to smooth out her hair. The carefully-constructed braids that she had left her room with were now looser, and hairs were escaping them along the crown of her head. She had no mirror, so she walked up to one of the many decorative fountains that dotted the garden and looked into the water as she tried to straighten it out.

This seemed like an excessive amount of worry over some hair, but the way her hands were shaking began looking a lot less like anger to Vexx and more like--

"Stop," he said, "you're making it worse."

She froze with her fingers hovering over the frayed braids. Vexx didn't know why he even said anything, because now she was looking at him wide-eyed and pale, and strangely helpless. 

But if this was the juvenile shit he was going to be dealing with, might as well. He stepped closer, dipped his hand in the fountain water--cold and clear enough to drink--and then raised his wet fingers slowly to her head. She hesitated, or maybe she was still frozen in surprise, but she allowed him to smooth out her hair. The water made more of a difference, and most of the loose hair was neatly laid flat again, but there wasn't much to do about the braids unless she wanted to re-do them. Maybe nobody would notice they were a bit loose, who really cared about that shit? In the few times he'd been out and about, following the Princess throughout the south wing, nobody ever gave her a second look; most people didn't even give her a first one to begin with.

Still, her head hung even after he finished fixing her hair, like she was afraid to move. Was she zoning out again? Seriously? Right now? He tapped a finger under her chin, and she looked up. Her eyes caught on him, focused and present the way he hadn't seen of her much.

"Thank you," she said, with more feeling than Vexx thought was warranted. 

Vexx couldn't help the slow smirk that started spreading across his face, and especially not when her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. She skittered back a step, startled like she didn't know what to do with the attention, and Vexx let her go. When she turned abruptly and began walking again, he watched the back of her head as she stood straighter this time, shoulders pulled back in impeccable posture and looking forward instead of the ground.

He'd never had someone react so drastically to so little attention, and it almost tickled a chuckle out of him. That was probably inappropriate, wasn't it?

They reached what Vexx assumed was her destination soon enough. One of the garden gazebos was occupied, the sound of voices and tinkle of fine porcelain signalling that a tea party was in progress. Vexx saw, at a glimpse, that one of the queens was there: Lucrezia, just as beautiful in person as she was renowned to be, and Princess Nerissa, next in line for the throne. A handful of hanger-ons rounded off the guest list--the general assortment of sycophants who styled themselves as courtiers--and Princess Ophelia slid into the seat at the far end, quiet and unobtrusive.

Queen Lucrezia gave no indication she even noticed her youngest child, though Princess Nerissa smiled and nodded in greeting. 

It was a strange study in contrasts to see the Solar Queen and her eldest child sitting next to one another. Princess Nerissa had inherited her mother's beauty, but had a warmth in her expression that set her apart from her mother's cold elegance.

Vexx gave them only a cursory glance, not wanting to get caught staring, but then his eyes drifted to Princess Ophelia, who took more after her father: blunter features, a face that settled into frowns more easily than any other expression. If the fact that she was youngest of eleven wasn't proof enough that Princess Ophelia hadn't had a winning ticket in this particular genetic lottery, then the fact that she was the least attractive child to come out of the King's most beautiful wife would have probably condemned her to the lowest spot in the royal family's pecking order anyway.

When Queen Lucrezia finally deigned to acknowledge her youngest, her lovely expression pulled into a displeased pout. A woman like that didn't frown, of course; she probably couldn't abide the thought of frown lines.

"Ophelia, darling," Queen Lucrezia spoke, sending every eye in the gazebo towards the Princess before finally delivering the insult, "you are looking positively disheveled."

"I'm sorry, Mother," the Princess replied, her voice neutral. She made no mention of Arlo, not as excuse or even as explanation.

The Queen's expression turned sour at this response. Evidently she'd been expecting some kind of explanation too, but didn't deign to waste her time until her daughter decided to provide it. Queen Lucrezia returned to monopolizing the conversation after that, and it might have been the only exchange Princess Ophelia would have at that tea party, except after a few minutes, the Queen's eyes wandered back to Princess Ophelia.

"Hm." Queen Lucrezia's lips pursed, before she sighed and put a hand to her forehead like she was warding off a headache. "No, I cannot look at you like this. It is too upsetting. Why don't you ever think of your poor mother?"

Princess Nerissa's expression turned unhappy, but the sycophants hurried to comfort the Queen in her hour of need: one patted her hand, another took her tea cup to top it off, and a clamor of reassurance rose in the gazebo as they all began to converge on her with the full weight of their bootlicking. Vexx would have thought it a stupid thing to get this worked up about, except he caught sight of a flash of satisfaction in the Queen's eye that proved she was not so much devastated as making a ploy for attention at her daughter's expense.

Without a word or even a sound, Princess Ophelia rose from her seat and slipped away from the gazebo. She was halfway down the three steps of the gazebo, when Princess Nerissa intercepted her, taking her hand in hers.

"You don't need to leave," Princess Nerissa said in an undertone--not something meant for the ears of the sycophant.

"It's better if I do," Ophelia replied, with no real rancor, "you know how hard she'll be to deal with if I don't. Go fawn over her a bit, I bet that'll keep the questions about suitors away for a while."

Princess Nerissa sighed, and her fingers--long and elegant--brushed along her sister's forehead.

"You look just fine, you know," she said.

"'Fine' is a low bar for the Solar Queen," Princess Ophelia replied. "Go back to Mother."

Vexx quietly followed the Princess as she took the garden path again, back the way she came. When he swallowed, he felt frustration like bile burning the back of his throat, and couldn't understand why or how someone could just take this sort of nonsense without pushing back. It was like having a first row ticket to the world's saddest spectacle, if Vexx was being honest.

The Princess was probably headed back to her room to... do something. Vexx wasn't sure what a person like her did in her room all day. He never heard anything interesting the entire week he guarded her door. When he did hear anything at all, it was usually the servants knocking about, or snatches of music that never seemed to last long. Maybe she really did stare at the wall all day, for all he knew.

She was clearly not paying attention to her surroundings, because she didn't notice Prince Arlo's guard around the next bend of the path, half-concealed by the foliage on some trellis, and if the Prince's guard was there, then the little shit was nearby too. There was only so many pathetic encounters Vexx could withstand in a day.

"Princess," Vexx called in warning. She flinched--startled out of her thoughts--and reflexively looked up, spotting the people ahead.

She stopped and turned around.

"Let's just--" she started, and Vexx nodded, gesturing for her to lead the way. She bustled past him and cut straight through the decorative hedges.

Vexx stifled a laugh, because seeing a royal willing to throw themselves in a bush rather than face another one of their kind was definitely up there with the funniest things he'd seen since arriving at the palace, and that was commentary on how fucking uptight everyone was here all the time more than anything. But he followed, of course.

Even off the path, the garden was carefully manicured, every plant kept to perfect size and shape to mimic the aesthetic of wild growth but with none of the chaos that entailed. There were narrow, wending paths between the trees and decorative shrubbery for gardeners to pass through. Still, some sardonic part of Vexx's mind couldn't help thinking of what Queen Lucrezia would say about her youngest getting grass stains on her clothes.

They reached a wall of the palace soon enough. Thick vines were growing up along the white wall, thick waxy leaves and small purple flowers with petals edged in yellow. Princess Ophelia followed the wall until it turned to trellis, and then, as she reached under the leaves and turned a handle, Vexx realized it wasn't a trellis at all, it was a wrought iron door.

He grew alert. What was this? A secret entrance? In the garden? He looked around to note landmark, trying to adjust his mental map so he could locate this place later. This could be useful.

The Princess pulled on the door, but it stuck partway. It was narrow; she herself could slip right in, but as she looked between the opening and then at Vexx, it was clear she had noticed it was far too narrow for him to follow, so she tried to pry it wider.

Vexx nearly snorted at this unexpected show of consideration for him, but it was clear she didn't quite have the strength for it--the vines had grown and entangled in the door, keeping it stuck from opening fully.

"Don't hurt yourself," Vexx said, and even managed not to sound sarcastic, as he brushed the Princess out of the way, and grabbed the edge of the door to pull. It stuck for another second, but then something overhead snapped, sending a sprinkling of pollen down on them, and the door finally swung free.

The Princess gave him that wide-eyed look again. Vexx didn't know why, this time, but she stood rooted to the spot, hands wringing nervously, and he could almost hear the whir of her thoughts, even if he couldn't read her. She was a strange one, but she didn't strike him as dangerous. All his instincts screamed harmless weirdo.

But, "You're not leading me into a trap, are you, Princess?" he asked, just to poke at her.

"What? No!" she blurted, surprised. "It's just an old service tunnel, they closed it when they moved the gardeners' quarters on the other side of the south wing."

"Huh. The palace has a lot of hidden passageways?" he asked. "They didn't cover that in training."

"It's an old building," she shrugged. "It's undergone a lot of renovations over the generations. New rooms being added, old ones being converted, walls put in, walls knocked down, false walls, service tunnels, a fashion for secret escape tunnels back when revolts were more common..." She shrugged, even as Vexx's eyebrows rose up higher with every word she said. "The palace is like a warren, but it's structurally safe."

Then, as if to prove there was no danger, the Princess walked ahead into the dark passage.

Vexx followed in, and pulled the door closed behind him, but the tunnel was so pitch dark that his eyes needed a moment to adjust. The Princess probably did too, because she was stopped a few steps in, her arms crossed, her head turned towards the darkness ahead. He stepped closer, making no effort to quiet his steps, so he was sure she heard him approach, but when he placed a hand on her shoulder, she still flinched.

He couldn't see the look on her face as she turned her head towards him, only the whites of her eyes in the darkness, but he could imagine her expression perfectly.

"If there's no lights in the tunnel, you'll need to lead the way. I have no idea where we're going," he said.

"Oh. Oh, of course," she said quickly. "Yes, sure, h-hold on."

Vexx couldn't be sure, but he would have wagered his last coin she was blushing right then. He couldn't see it, but then, she couldn't see his smirk in the dark, either.

The tunnel smelled musty, unused. He could feel pebbles grinding underfoot, crunching loudly in the darkness. He counted steps, but they didn't walk for very long, and when they emerged again, it was through a perfectly normal door and out into a hallway. By the look of it, it was near the servants' quarters, one of numerous identical doors, tucked in a quiet corner. Not a secret passageway, maybe, but a forgotten one, given the layer of dust.

His hand slipped off the Princess' shoulder, and he began to re-evaluate her usefulness. She'd lived her entire life in the palace, and she'd likely picked up all manner of little tidbits like these without even knowing their value.

Now, if only he could get her out of her room more often...

He followed her all the way back to her door, mind buzzing with half-formed plans, but when they finally reached her room, she stopped just past the threshold, a hand still on the door handle, keeping the door from closing behind her. She looked at the ground, fingers tightening and loosening like she was trying to work up the courage to say something.

"Princess?" he said, and that one softly-spoken word was enough to break her out of whatever mental deadlock she'd overthought herself into. She twisted around to look at him.

"You're, um... You have to guard my door," she said.

"...Yeah?" He had no idea where she was going with this, but he assumed she had more to say than just stating the obvious.

"You can guard it from either side, can't you?" she said, eyes darting away, jumping from the ground to tracing the engraved vine pattern on her door, looking at anything but Vexx.

Today was working out in his favor better than he ever could have expected, and Vexx couldn't help but smirk as he stepped forward. She nearly jumped out of her skin as he approached, close enough that he could feel her body heat, and she had no choice but to look up at him, pinned in place by his gaze alone.

He'd never had someone react so strongly when he'd done so little, but the Princess drank in every drop of his attention like the cracked earth of the desert swallowed every drop of water and remained hungry for more. He didn't know if he'd ever managed to make a woman blush so fiercely before, and it wasn't for a lack of charm on his part, but the Princess seemed sensitive to every little thing, every twitch of his expression, every motion of his body, every place his glance fell. He could hear the whir of her overclocked thoughts again, and he wondered how someone this hyper-aware would even react if he actually tried to touch her. She'd combust, probably.

"Are you asking me to come in, Princess?" he drawled slowly, watching as every word sank into her, and lit her up from inside like a live wire.

"Do you want to come in?" she returned, sounding terribly steady for someone blushing so hard.

He made a thoughtful sound and looked down her body, but this seemed to jar her out of whatever spell she was under, because she stepped back and folded her arms around her chest.

"Not-- I didn't mean it like that!" she said, scowling even as her face was still red. 

Vexx nearly laughed when he realized she hadn't even considered what it sounded like when she asked him in. Maybe it simply didn't occur to her that anyone _would_ be interested in her in that way. Maybe nobody _had_ been, when she spent all her life being surrounded by more beautiful, more poised, more politically relevant relatives. What a waste. Because when you didn't put her up against her mother in looks, or her sister in grace, she was still prettier than she had any right to be. 

"I just thought," she began again, careful with her words, "doesn't it get lonely standing out there by yourself all day?"

The word choice jumped out at Vexx then. 'Lonely', was what she asked about, not 'bored', which Vexx would have thought was more obvious. This was too sad. Whatever teasing comment had been on Vexx's tongue withered, and his smirk melted away. 

"I wouldn't mind some company," he said, and she brightened like he'd just given her the world.

It was maybe the first time Vexx felt a niggling of guilt since arriving at the palace, and it was over this inconsequential Princess who would probably be dead in a couple of years anyway, through no fault but accident of birth. 

Yeah, he was going to have to squelch out that feeling real soon.


End file.
